Dragon and Bulldog
by The Broken Mask
Summary: Sodor's Engines Writing Challenge #9. A surprise visit from Dragon's restorers threatens to force a wedge in her relationship with Laira, especially when a shared secret slips out to their guests.


**Sodor's Engines Writing Challenge #9**

**Prompt:** Sodor is full of many infamous pairs that are as close as can be. However, everyone has their arguments. What do they argue about and how is it resolved, if it is resolved?

**Restrictions:** One short story between 1000 and 3000 words, excluding author's notes and such. At least one of the main pair must be an engine, canons are welcome as are OCs. Pairs can have any kind of relationship; platonic, romantic, familial, even rivalry. At least one other character should make an appearance, even if it is only minor or cameo, including engine crews, workers or either of the Hatts. And all the usual stuff about make sure you've got permission to use other people's OCs etc.

**Total Words:** 2,249

**Main Characters:** The Dragon of Wales ("Dragon") and Laira ("Bulldog")

**Other Characters:** Daisy, Shunter, Mr Evans, Dragon's crew, Laira's crew

_Note: Daisy is canon and Shunter belongs to Broom Boi. Others are my own characters._

* * *

The rising summer sun cast a long, bright beam of light straight through the windows of a lonely shed at the far end of the newest extension to the Arlesbrugh Line, just outside of the Ballaswein Station in fact. Two surprisingly similar sized engines were asleep in there, both once hailing from the Great Western Railway but now both settled on Sodor for exactly one year as of the coming night.  
The bright beam of light landed squarely on the tank engine's face as it usually did, breaking her out of a dreamless sleep and groggily into reality, reflecting off her brand new green paint and casting reflections all around the shed with the mess of mirrors the two engines' crews had set up once upon a time.  
"Morning Laira." The tank engine yawned to her tender engine companion as their crews came in for the day, but she only received a whimper in return that made her wake up much quicker. "Laira?"  
Next to her, her partner hadn't woken up and seemed to be trapped in her sleep. Laira was muttering something, but the tank engine couldn't work out what she was saying.  
"She's having a nightmare!" She called out to her crew in mild panic, only able to watch in silence as Laira's crew picked up the bucket by the door and threw the water over Laira's face, waking the tender engine up with a splutter.  
"Why...?" Laira groaned, closing her eyes again as soon as the water had stopped dripping down her face.  
"You were having a nightmare again." The tank engine told her gently.  
"Nope."  
"Yes you were."  
"Nope."  
"Laira..."  
"Dragon, please." Laira's eyes opened slowly in protest, staring at Dragon hollowly, but she was quiet. "I'm fine, I was just thinking about the other railway when I fell asleep last night. I heard driver and fireman talking about That Night before they left."  
"We made it out." Dragon reminded her, and it made Laira smile a little. "We'll find a way to celebrate tonight. We'll sit at Harwick near the water and watch the sunset together."  
"Sure." Laira replied, not sounding especially excited, and in fact rather tense, but Dragon passed it off as tiredness.  
"Come on you two, stop dallying." Dragon's driver said as he stood in front of them both. "The boss says you're both swapping duties today."  
"Why?" Both engines groaned simultaneously.  
"Because your restoration group has come to see you and to do a piece about how you're doing now."  
"Oh! All the way from Llangollen?" Dragon asked.  
"Every major contributor to your restoration." Her driver answered with a smile.  
"That's... wow!" Dragon was speechless, but her expression fell when she looked over to Laira and she seemed to be scowling. "Wait, Bulldog will be a part of this, won't she?"  
"I don't know." Her driver simply shrugged.  
"They can't do a piece on me without Bulldog involved!"  
"Tell them that when you see them." Her driver had his hands up in defence as the rest of the crews climbed into their cabs.  
With a last look at each other, the two engines steamed out to start the day.

Needless to say, Dragon had to get some special coaches from Knapford for her restorers' visit, and by the time she had managed to get them to cooperate with her Daisy had already arrived at Harwick with the guests and Laira was scowling at the railcar from the extension line up to Ballaswein. Dragon didn't need to get close to see that Laira was already chewing Daisy out.  
"What part of don't sneak up on me is so difficult for you?!" Laira snapped angrily at Daisy.  
"It isn't my fault that I am so sleek and quiet." Daisy retaliated haughtily.  
"It is your fault you can't obey simple instructions and get into the right platform!"  
"I am in the platform that I was requested by the stationmaster to be in."  
With one glance up to the signals, Dragon could see that Daisy was actually right, but she backed down into the platform on the opposite side of Daisy to Laira peacefully.  
"Hey, it's fine, don't worry." Dragon called over before Laira could lash out again. "We'll find a way around it, yeah?"  
"Peacekeeper as always I see." A man chuckled as he approached Dragon's front, and it was a face that made Dragon very happy.  
"Mr Evans!" Dragon beamed. "It's so good to see you!"  
"You too of course." Mr Evans replied with a grin as his colleagues began to board the coaches behind her and Daisy took her leave. "You seem very happy to be here. What do you do these days?"  
"I run the line from here up to Ballaswein." Dragon enthused. "It's a little settlement at the north of Sodor and it's really been booming since Sir Topham Hatt made the line up there. It's a commuter town even. All the freight I've taken up there since has been for building more homes and shops and the school and the church! Our crew live up there and our shed is up there too."  
"_Our_?" Mr Evans questioned.  
"Yes, I work on the line with my partner Bulldog-err, Laira. She's the tender engine over there-oh."  
Dragon looked over to where Laira should have been, sat with her handful of stone trucks, but she was gone. There wasn't even any sign of smoke around her or in the distance, only the dropped signal over her line being any indication that she was there at all.  
"The one that was arguing with the railcar? You do pick the oddest friends."  
"Yeah. She's just skittish is all." Dragon replied, her excitement leaving her like air out of a balloon.  
"Any idea why?"  
"She was nearly put to scrap. All on her own, out in the scrap yard. She's had to have a new cab since coming here, we barely made it out."  
"_We_?!" Mr Evans exclaimed loud enough to make everyone within a few meters go quiet, including the rest of the group in the coaches.  
"I rescued her." Dragon answered simply and hollowly. "I took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in the scrap yards too. They nearly had me if crew hadn't been able to get enough of a fire going."  
"That is terrible." Mr Evans also went stern. "I must chase this up, it's outrageous that you, a newly restored engine, nearly went for scrap!"  
"Sir, it's really no big deal, I promise!" Dragon protested, but her protests evidently fell on deaf ears as the man turned to board the carriages behind her.  
Cursing silently, Dragon took off for the tour she had been assigned to do, growling at her coaches to come along when they hesitated.

When Mr Evans had demanded to make a stop at Knapford later that day, Dragon knew exactly why but she couldn't really deny his request. She watched him stride boldly into the Fat Controller's office with a sigh, settling in a side platform while she waited. She repeated the conversation with Mr Evans over and over in her mind. She was so entranced in fact that when a diesel with more than just his crew in his cab rolled up to her, she didn't even notice until he spoke.  
"'ello there." He said, making Dragon physically jump but he didn't even bat an eyelid. "Names Shunter. Happen to know where Ballaswein is?"  
"Um, yeah, through Knapford up past Harwick." Dragon answered in confusion. "Why?"  
"Been assigned there." Shunter replied with the auditory equivalent of a shrug. "The normal engine who shunts there is doing something else apparently."  
"But Laira is still there." Dragon questioned. "She's perfectly capable of shunting."  
"Don't ask me." Shunter replied in the same tone, but he soon made his escape. "Well, see ya soon."  
Dragon was stunned into silence as the green diesel left, and judging by the looks on her crews' faces when they came around to her front, they were all having the same thoughts.  
"She's going to tear him to shreds." Dragon's driver stated.  
"She will." Dragon agreed. "She never liked trucks in the first place, but the Fat Controller has sent him right into the Bulldog's den."  
"I don't really know what we can do about it." Her fireman intervened gently.  
"We can stop him getting flayed from here to the mainland." Dragon stated. "If he tries telling her what to do, and he probably will, she will lash out at him. Physically."  
"We can't just leave. You've got a passenger train to pull." Her fireman protested.  
"Yes we can. We'll make it in time." Dragon said, even though they clearly wouldn't and her fireman gave her a look that meant he knew exactly that.  
"I'm sure they can entertain themselves at the station for a bit. There's plenty of other engines that come through here." Her driver encouraged, putting his hand on the fireman's shoulder.  
"Can we go before Ballaswein explodes?" Dragon encouraged when her fireman seemed to admit defeat.  
"Alright, alright, but you two owe me one." The man grumbled as he unhooked Dragon from her coaches.  
Dragon barely waited for him to get back in her cab before she rushed off.

Dragon didn't know what to expect when she did arrive in Ballaswein's yard, but seeing Shunter shunting away peacefully wasn't it. However, neither was Laira being sat off to one side with her crew on the ground arguing with another man. The tender engine was clearly furious, as her safety valve was blowing wildly on her top and neither of her crew were doing much better.  
Dragon had barely rolled into her sight line when Laira looked over, enraged.  
"Hey! Why are we being asked about That Night?!" She shouted over, scowling.  
"I told Mr Evans abo-"  
"You did what?!" Laira shouted even louder. "First you wouldn't even tell him that you worked with me and then you tell him about that?!"  
"You left before I could." Dragon answered. "And I didn't mean to. He asked why you were so skittish and I told him the truth about the scrap yard."  
"Don't you pin it all on me! We've never told anyone about that for a good reason, but now everyone will know!"  
"I tried to get him to not make a big deal out of it, but-"  
"By taking him right to The Fat Controller's office?" Laira was having none of it. "He said he met you there and you know exactly how word spreads around here."  
"I won't say anything if it helps." Shunter piped up in his previous monotonous tone, although all this did was attract the wrath of Laira.  
"You better not! It's bad enough you brought this loon here, but if I find out that you've told anyone, you will pay."  
"Bulldog, come on!" Dragon protested, only to get scowled at by Laira.  
"Don't you Bulldog me." She growled, but returned to her crews' conversation with a shout from her driver.  
Dragon felt her own wounds stinging as her driver got a call also, one that ended pretty quickly.  
"We've got to go." He told her quietly.  
"I'm going." Dragon answered, looking over at Laira and Shunter one more time before puffing quietly away, the tender engine ignoring her and Shunter seemingly reflecting her apologetic look.

It was already starting to get dark by the time Dragon had managed to shake her restorers group and coaches, and despite her dampened mood, she pushed herself as fast as she could back up to Ballaswein to find Laira and apologise, rattling through Harwick as fast as she could to get back to the shed before the sun did set.  
To her surprise, when her crew opened the doors to her shed, they found it totally empty. No sign of a dropped fire or that Laira had even been there since this morning.  
"Did she get hurt?" Dragon fretted.  
"Maybe she just went to the docks." Her fireman soothed. "You know, like you asked her to."  
"Maybe..." Dragon wasn't convinced, but went over anyway at her crews' command - and her fireman was right. Laira was there, looking over the Sudrain sea and even though she was facing away from Dragon, Dragon could tell that the engine knew she was there by the little twitches she made as Dragon rolled quietly over onto the line beside her.  
"I didn't think you were going to show up." Laira commented with just a little of her usual sass when Dragon stopped beside her.  
"I didn't think you were either." Dragon replied. "I went all the way up to the shed. I wanted to apologise before the sun set and the day was ruined entirely."  
"For telling your boss about That Night?"  
"That and not making sure you were included in the write up from the start. Mr Evans kept asking about you, especially after I disappeared to come to check on you and Shunter."  
"What did you tell him?"  
"I told him that I wanted to check on my line, and that you were my partner, running this with me. That we built this line together and that we'd run it together until we were old and rusting."  
"Damn right. That Shunter won't be coming back any time soon. I think I scared him off." Laira grinned. "I'm sorry about getting so angry as well. I don't know why I do it."  
"I wouldn't have you any other way, Bulldog."


End file.
